US VP Biden wraps up first leg of Brazil visit

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is wrapping up his visit to Rio de Janeiro with a visit to a slum before traveling to Brasilia for a Friday meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

Biden embraced and shook hands with residents of the Santa Marta hillside slum in Rio's south zone during a 30-minute visit on Thursday.

The slum is among several that are part of Rio's slum "pacification" program to make the city safe ahead of the 2014 soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

Biden met in the slum with Police Major Pricilla de Oliveira who last year received one of the U.S. government's International Women of Courage awards for her work in setting up a "pacification unit" in Santa Marta.